SUMMER SPOET IN NOVA ZEMLA. 73 



off the record no great harm will be done. The finder 

 of the record then goes to the spot indicated, and 

 deep beneath the snow we hope finds the depot 

 intact. 



The chase of the reindeer is not attended with pre- 

 cisely the same kind of excitement which arises from 

 that of the polar bear, but is in its way quite as en- 

 joyable, leading the hunter, as it does, to penetrate 

 into the more remote valleys towards the interior of 

 the islands, and that in their most picturesque part. 

 The mountains about Matotchkin Shar attain a 

 height of between 3000 and 4000 feet, the upper 

 portions being clad with eternal snow, which descends 

 in small glaciers into the heads of the valleys. There 

 is a tradition that an active volcano exists somewhere 

 in these parts ; but though I several times ascended 

 the highest mountains in the neighbourhood on pur- 

 pose to look for it, I could never see either the vol- 

 cano or any traces of it. I remember that a similar 

 tradition exists amongst the sea-elephant hunters of 

 Kerguelen Island, in the Antarctic Ocean, as to the 

 existence of a like phenomenon in the south-west or 

 most inaccessible corner of that great island, and im- 

 agine that these stories are but remnants of the old 

 fancies of long ago, when any unknown region used 

 to be peopled with dragons, goblins, giants, and what 

 not. 



On a fine, warm, sunshiny day, nothing is more 

 enjoyable than to start off in the early morning, when 



